UNDERSTANDING AGENCY--Maybe not what you think, but more powerful than you realize

I remember standing in the doorway of my house as a teenager declaring, “I have my free agency. I can do what I want!” At the time, agency seemed like a wonderful entitlement that opened doors without consequences.

As a mother of teenagers, I didn’t have such a liberal view. When one of my own children would declare themselves to be free agents—usually just before doing something they knew was wrong—I wondered if perhaps Satan’s plan of forced obedience was actually a good idea.

Thanks to the Book of Mormon, and particularly the prophet Lehi, who carefully explained this principle to his own children, I have learned six important principles about agency over the past several years. Come to find out, it isn’t what I thought it was as a teenager or even as a mother of teenaged children.

Principle #1—Agency is not free.

In the scriptures we are taught we are “free to choose” (2 Nephi 2:27) and we are told we have “moral agency” (D&C 101:78) but nowhere does it speak of “free agency”.

As Lehi taught, “men . . . are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men . . .” (2 Nephi 2:27, emphasis added).  Or, in other words, through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can choose good.  We can choose to repent. We can choose to receive the Holy Ghost. We can choose to make covenants. We can choose to qualify for eternal life. But without Christ’s atonement NONE of these blessings would be available to us. Once we sinned, no matter how small the sin, we would be forever in Satan’s grasp with no opportunity for repentance and no possibility for progress.

Agency is not free. It was purchased at a very high price—the atoning blood of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Principle #2—Agency requires opposition

Lehi’s statement, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11) is one of the most often quoted scriptures in the Church. Usually it is used to explain the need for life’s trials and tribulations. In regard to the principle of agency, however, it means that in order for something to be good, there must also be something that is bad.

Let’s say the only available item for your breakfast each morning is one hard-boiled egg. If you consider a hard-boiled egg to be a bad breakfast, then by only having that item available, you do not have the agency to choose anything good. If you love hard-boiled eggs, then by only having that item available, you do not have the agency to choose anything bad. The only agency you have is to eat the egg or go hungry. But the choice to eat something good or something bad has been taken from you.

In the gospel sense, in order for agency to exist there must not only be right, but also wrong.  Where there is light, there must also be darkness; where there is freedom, there must also be captivity; where there is eternal life, there must also be eternal damnation.  If there is only light, you can’t really choose light, because you have not been given a choice.

Principle #3—Agency requires knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.

“And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil”. (2 Nephi 2:5)

In the mission field, we frequently heard missionaries dismiss the failure of their investigators to attend church with, “We invited them, but they have their agency”.  Often we discovered the investigators did not truly have agency because the missionaries failed to instruct them sufficiently on the importance of going to church.

Agency requires you to know and understand that something is right or wrong. I can neither choose nor reject having an eternal family if I do not understand what an eternal family is and that having an eternal family requires me to be sealed to my spouse in the temple. And I can neither choose nor reject to receive the blessings associated with keeping the Sabbath Day holy if I do not know what keeping the Sabbath day entails and understand the blessings associated with keeping that law.

An increase in knowledge of right and wrong leads to an increase in agency. 

One of the great evils in the world today is the belief some parents have that they should not teach their children religious principles, but rather allow them to choose for themselves when they are adults.  Agency cannot exist without sufficient instruction and it is up to parents to sufficiently instruct.  

Principle #4—Agency requires choices to have consequences

“ . . . And if there be no righteousness, nor happiness, there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not, there is no God.” (2 Nephi 2:13)

This principle is very simple but critical and ties in with principle #3.  If there is no blessing associated with a good choice, then what makes it good? If there is no punishment associated with a bad choice, then what makes it bad? For agency to exist there must be blessings and punishments associated with each choice.

Principle #5—Agency requires that a person have the ability to act for oneself.

 (2 Nephi 2:16)

Once a man has knowledge of right and wrong and understands the consequences of his choices, then to have agency he must also have the physical, mental and emotional ability to make a choice. Without the power to act, he not only does not have agency, but he also is not accountable for his lack of action.

In an extreme example, if a woman is lying in bed critically ill and unable to move, she certainly does not have the power or ability to choose to read her scriptures daily. BUT she also does not have the ability to choose NOT to read them. Being physically unable to move has removed her ability to act. Therefore, she cannot be held accountable for her lack of action.

Principle #6—Agency is a requirement for exaltation.

Satan’s war in Heaven, which he continues here on earth today, was over agency. Why? Because agency is a requirement for redemption, progression, and in the end, exaltation.  Satan’s plan was always to take away our agency and enslave us, while God’s plan was always to increase our agency and exalt.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, “. . . God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become.” He can’t. It is against His law. He cannot increase our faith if we are not choosing to act in faith. He cannot increase our love for others, if we are not choosing to act in love.

And when we use our agency to make wrong choices, we lose agency.  However, when we use our knowledge and agency to make right choices our power to make right choices, our agency, increases. 

Just as with each unrepentant wrong choice we make, we lose agency, with each right choice we make, we gain it.  As we continue acting on our knowledge of right and wrong by choosing right, our power to do right expands. And this power, knowledge and agency will continue to increase until, through the atonement of Jesus Christ and His grace, we become like our Heavenly Father who has all knowledge, and all power to act on that knowledge, and therefore complete agency.

And that is why the fight for agency is a war worth fighting.
May we always be valiant soldiers in the battle. 

Lori Smith Wagner

One Mormon Voice

If you want to read more on this subject I recommend this talk by Elder Christofferson, "Free Forever, To Act For Themselves" Ensign, November 2014

What The Priesthood Isn't And Three Awesome Things It Is

Today, May 15, we celebrate the 187^th anniversary of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, near Harmony, Pennsylvania. All over the Church,  boys and their fathers commemorate the restoration of this Priesthood each year with a Fathers and Sons outing.

In honor of this event, (and the subsequent restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood) I want to share one thing the priesthood isn’t and three things the priesthood is.

What the priesthood is not:

“The Priesthood is not a group of men.” (Elder M. Russell Ballard)

I am fairly confident that a single week has not passed in the last 10 months (which is the amount of time I have purposely paid attention to this) that someone at church has not made a comment similar to, “We have asked the priesthood to put away the chairs.” Or—on Mother’s Day . . . “The Priesthood will be teaching the primary so all the women can go to Relief Society.” Or probably the most incorrect of all, “We would like to excuse the priesthood to go to their respective quorums.”

Although these comments are prolific and culturally accepted, they are also misleading and incorrect. Elder Dallin H. Oaks also commented, “Some of our abbreviated expressions, like “the women and the priesthood,” convey an erroneous idea. Men are not “the priesthood.” (October Conference 2005)

So if the priesthood isn’t a group of men, what then is it?

There are many official (and therefore all very similar) definitions of what the Priesthood is, but my favorite is in the missionary manual, “Preach My Gospel”.  It states that the priesthood is:  “the power and authority given to man to act in God’s name for the salvation of His children” (Preach My Gospel, p. 83). 

With that definition in mind, here are three principles to help us better understand what the priesthood is.

1. Priesthood power and authority is directed by those who hold priesthood keys.

Elder Oaks explained, “Priesthood keys are the authority God has given to priesthood [holders] to direct, control, and govern the use of His priesthood on earth. Every act or ordinance performed in the Church is done under the direct or indirect authorization of one holding the keys for that function.”

Although a father has the authority to give a father’s blessing to his child, he does not have the authority to baptize his child without authorization from the person in the ward who holds the keys for baptism, that person being the bishop. Likewise a father does not have the right to ordain his child, or anyone else, to an office in the priesthood without authorization from the person who holds the keys for that ordination—usually either the bishop or the stake president.

Similarly a woman does not have the authority to preside in a Relief Society organization, or any other Church organization, without the authorization of the person who holds the keys to direct the teaching in the ward or stake. Church callings for both men and women, priesthood ordinations and the entering into priesthood covenants are all directed and authorized by those who hold priesthood keys. 

Therefore . . . 

2. The Priesthood is the authority and power by which we receive and fulfill our Church callings

Elder Oaks also stated “ ‘all authorities [and] offices in the church are appendages to this [Melchizedek] priesthood’  (D&C 107:5), all that is done under the direction of those priesthood keys is done with priesthood authority.” Very simply stated, when as members of the Church, we are officially participating in the work of salvation in any way, we are doing so with priesthood authority, and priesthood authority gives us the power to accomplish our responsibility. This applies equally to both men and women.

Elder Oaks went on to say, “We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.”

#3. The Priesthood is the authority and the power by which we both make and keep our covenants.

In the baptismal covenant we promise to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. Or in other words, we covenant to love and serve God and our fellowman. Endowed members of the Church receive authority to be called as missionaries, and to perform proxy temple ordinances for those who have passed on,  (endowment and sealing).  When we enter into the priesthood covenant of eternal marriage, both the man and the woman receive priesthood authority and the responsibility to create a family unit, become parents through the bringing of God’s spirit children into this world, and the opportunity—if we keep our covenants—to have an eternal family.

And as we obey God’s will, we also receive God’s power, priesthood power, to accomplish, or keep our covenants.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson explained, “In all the ordinances, especially those of the temple, we are endowed with power from on high.  This “power of godliness” comes in the person and by the influence of the Holy Ghost. . . . The gifts of the Holy Spirit are testimony, faith, knowledge, wisdom, revelations, miracles, healing, and charity, to name but a few (see D&C 46:13–26). . . . It is also the Holy Ghost, in His character as the Holy Spirit of Promise, that confirms the validity and efficacy of your covenants and seals God’s promises upon you."

He goes on to say that as we are exact in keeping our covenants we can “ . . . ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, ‘Here am I.’”

So simply put, under the direction of priesthood keys, we receive authority and power to hold and fulfill Church callings, enter into priesthood covenants, receive the authority to participate in covenant activities and the power and ability to do whatever is necessary for us to keep our covenants and accomplish our tasks, including our responsibilities as parents.

Wow!!! And all of these blessings, power and authority are available to each of us, male and female alike, simply because God restored His priesthood power to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery!!

What a wonderful day to celebrate!!

Lori Wagner

One Mormon Voice

BONUS QUESTION: Do you know when the Melchizedek Priesthood was restored? Click Here to find out! 

The majority of the quotes from Elder Oaks are from his April, 2014 Conference Talk, "The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood"

Elder Christofferson's full talk can be found at The Power of Covenants

Gender and Indentity Confusion--One of Satan's Sneaky Snares

The most important knowledge we need to understand about ourselves is that we are beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and that our gender is an essential characteristic in God’s plan for us. It is no wonder that one of Satan’s great sneaky snares is to confuse us about both our spiritual identity as well as our gender. 

I am a child of God
The first principle missionaries teach is that God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children.  He has a body of flesh and bones and we are created in His image.  In “The Family—A Proclamation to the World” we are additionally taught that as beloved sons and daughters of God, we each have “ . . . a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal and eternal identify and purpose. “

The Bible begins with the story of the creation of man and woman, children of God, created in His image.

Each Sunday all over the world, young women stand together and recite, “We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us and we love Him.” In primary the children frequently sing, “I Am A Child of God”.

It is no coincidence that this doctrine is emphasized over and over again.

The most important knowledge we need to understand about ourselves is that we are beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and as such we can become like Him, and that our gender is essential to fulfilling our divine destiny and purpose.

God is my Heavenly Father and He knows my name

I remember well the first time I began to understand my relationship with my Heavenly Father.  I grew up singing “I Am A Child of God’ and always felt comforted by the words of the song. But it was at the beginning of 9^th grade, when I came to know for a surety that God was my Heavenly Father and as such, he knew me!!

Brother Robert Wells (not the general authority) was my ninth grade seminary teacher at Lincoln Junior High in Orem, Utah. At the beginning of the year he informed us that after prayerful consideration he would be extending callings to class officers the following day. That night, while saying my prayers, I had the impression that I would be called to serve in our seminary class and that Leon Berrett would be called as the class president.

The next day when I arrived at seminary, Brother Wells was handing out appointment slips to those who were being called as class officers. Without thinking about what I was doing, I stood by him and waited for him to hand me my slip. He looked at me a little quizzically at first, then sorted through the slips until he found mine.  That afternoon he called me to be a zone leader.

Being a zone leader in a ninth grade seminary class was certainly not a position of power or much authority but for me it was life changing. For the first time in my life, I knew God knew me and He knew my name! For how could he tell Brother Wells to call me to a position if he didn’t know who I was?  And for a second witness that my revelation was correct, Leon Berrett was called to be the class president.

God loves us and wants to communicate with us
I few years later I had another memorable experience that strengthened my testimony of God as our Father and His love for us.  I was just beginning my mission in Ecuador and assigned to the small, poverty stricken coastal town of Esmeraldas. With very little Spanish, I struggled to teach the people the gospel in their native language.

One afternoon my companion and I met with a young man at the pre-fabricated church building. It was hot, as always, and without any air conditioning, we were drenched in sweat. But felt the Spirit as we taught about God, our Father in Heaven, who loves us.

The young man was a bit incredulous that God was actually his spirit father and so we taught him to pray and invited him to ask God Himself.  The young man bowed his head and in very simple words offered his first prayer. The Spirit filled the room as a clear and profound answer was given. Each of us could testify that a response was received, but what struck me the most about the experience was that I could literally feel God smiling! I could sense His joy at being able to talk once again to one of His beloved sons! I could feel His happiness at being able to let this young man know that yes, He was his father, He was aware of him and He loved him!

If having a clear understanding of who we are and what we can become is the most essential knowledge we can have in this life, it only makes sense that one of Satan’s most sneaky snares would be to attempt to distort and diminish our true identify.

Gender and identity confusion is a tactic of Satan to cause us to forget who we are and our purpose on earth

I recently watched a video published by The Family Policy Institute of Washington.  College students were interviewed regarding their feelings on people being able to use any bathroom based on the gender they identified with. All the students were in favor of the policy, feeling that everyone should be supported in their feelings.

Then the interviewer began to change the questions and asked if it were okay for him to believe he was an Asian woman, a seven year old and six-foot five (8 inches taller than his actual height) Having once taken the position that you can believe whatever you want to believe and should be supported in your belief, the students stuck with that position, but with less and less conviction.

The truth is that a five-foot nine-inch adult white man, is just that—a five-foot nine-inch adult white man. And no matter what he wants to believe, he will never be a seven-year-old, six-foot-five inch Asian woman. Never.

And although there are many dangers the "be whatever you want to be" environment creates for our society, I think the greatest tragedy of all is that it prevents people from learning who they truly are and therefore also prevents them from understanding their divine purpose and potential.

I know who I am, I know God's Plan, I'll follow Him in faith
Each of us is a beloved son or daughter of the Most High God. And no amount of personal desire, laws or public persuasion can change that. We are created in God's image and our divine destiny is to become like Him. Gender is an essential characteristic in achieving our eternal purpose as not only sons and daughters of God, but also future fathers and mothers with our own eternal families.

May we always remember that.

Lori Wagner,

One Mormon Voice